KSW 60: Phil De Fries continues reign as KSW heavyweight champion with dominant win over Tomasz Narkun
Tomasz Narkun’s second attempt at becoming a KSW two-division champion ended worse than his first as Phil De Fries once again showed why he is currently untouchable as the promotion’s heavyweight king.
Composed, methodical and dominant: De Fries had his way with Narkun for as long as the fight lasted as his physicality overwhelmed the light heavyweight champion in this rematch at KSW 60.
Narkun tried upping the mental warfare ahead of the fight with an increased level of trash talk and refused to touch gloves with De Fries ahead of the fight. After losing the first contest over five rounds, it was worth trying some new things.
The Pole came into the fight much lighter than he did last time around and looked to take the fight to De Fries from the very get go with a jumping switch kick that failed to hit the mark.
From there, the contest continued its frenetic start as Narkun looked to land as many punches as possible, both at range and in the clinch. Though, a noticeable absence were the kicks that led to him being taken down in their first fight at KSW 47.
De Fries immediately showed off his size advantage in the clinch and was able to control Narkun in close quarters, eventually muscling the contest down to the floor. In the ensuing scramble, Narkun wound up on top, but De Fries soon hit a butterfly sweep to escape from the bottom.
The fight wound up on the floor again and Narkun, a submission artist, threatened with a heel hook but De Fries stayed heavy on that leg and managed to work his way into an advantageous position on the ground to smother his opponent. Narkun eventually escaped, but was hauled back down to the ground to receive punishing punches as the opening round expired.
Narkun looked exhausted entering the second round and De Fries sensed this. Continuing in the vein of their previous bout and in the rematch’s opening stanza, the English heavyweight once again got Narkun down to dole out more punishment – this time, landing in full mount and unleashing a torrent of shots from on top.
De Fries was then forced into half guard but grabbed a hold of Narkun’s right wrist, wrenching it across his opponent’s head. With wrist control, the Sunderland native peppered Narkun with a constant stream of punches and the latter was unable to defend any of those shots that were thrown his way.
Stifled, unable to effectively defend himself and totally spent of any energy, Narkun was a sitting duck and the referee rightly called the fight to a stop in the second round.
De Fries retained his belt for the fifth time and extended his record as the most dominant heavyweight champion in KSW history.
As for Narkun, he will once again lick his wounds before returning to his light heavyweight home where he has ruled since 2015.
KSW 60: Marian Zió?kowski retains KSW lightweight title against Maciej Kazieczko
Marian Zió?kowski retained his KSW lightweight gold for the first time after submitting heavy hitter Maciej Kazieczko in the KSW 60 co-main event.
Zió?kowski, who won the vacant 155-pound title against Roman Szyma?ski at the end of 2020, looked sharp on Saturday night, expertly picking off the aggressive Kazieczko with punches at range.
Kazieczko got scant reward for his output as he got planted with a big right hand in the second round. Zió?kowski followed up with some ferocious ground and pound on the floor, before taking Kazieczko’s back and snatching his neck for a rear-naked choke, prompting a quick tap.
Now with Mateusz Gamrot in the UFC, “The Golden Boy” Zió?kowski looks every bit the man to beat in KSW’s lightweight division.
KSW 60: Marek Samociuk scores memorable, come-from-behind victory over Izu Ugonoh
There is plenty of intrigue around the mixed martial arts journey of decorated boxer Izu Ugonoh, who officially made the switch to MMA in 2020 when he won his debut against Quentin Domingos at KSW 54.
For his second bout, Ugonoh was taking on Marek Samociuk on short notice and things got off to a great start for the Polish-Nigerian striker.
Ugonoh hurt Samociuk in the opening round and chased the finish to score a first-round victory. Samociuk, however, had other ideas and somehow managed to withstand the storm coming in his direction to see out the first five minutes.
Simply put, Ugonoh punched himself out in the first round and Samociuk somehow looked fresh despite the punishment he had just received.
Samociuk managed to execute an easy takedown early in the second round, achieve full mount and land a series of punches from on top of an exhausted Ugonoh to earn a TKO victory against the betting favourite.
KSW 60: De Fries vs. Narkun full results
KSW Heavyweight Championship: Phil De Fries (c) def. Tomasz Narkun by TKO (punches) at 3:37 of round two
KSW Lightweight Championship: Marian Zió?kowski (c) def. Maciej Kazieczko by submission (rear-naked choke) at 4:25 of round two
Heavyweight: Marek Samociuk def. Izu Ugonoh by TKO (elbows and punches) at 0:27 of round two
Featherweight: Patryk Kaczmarczyk def. Micha? Sobiech by unanimous decision after three rounds
Middleweight: Aleksandar Ili? def. Adrian Dudek by TKO (head kick and punches) at 3:44 of round one
Featherweight: Vojto Barborík def. Krzysztof Klaczek by submission (rear-naked choke) at 2:30 of round two
Women’s Strawweight: Karolina Wójcik def. Aleksandra Rola by unanimous decision after three rounds
Catchweight: Ion Surdu def. Kacper Koziorz?bski by KO (head kick) at 2:19 of round one
Bantamweight: Jakub Wik?acz def. Patryk Surdyn by unanimous decision after three rounds
